A solitary Seb Lake-Gaskin penalty landed Valley a first victory in four attempts but once more Dave Stringer’s side made heavy going of affairs against mid-table opposition.

Stringer made one change to the side that had played out the Chalfont stalemate the week previously at Butlin Road, with Nathan Haines restored to the line-up after a three match absence through injury – with Richard Wesley dropping down to the bench to accommodate him.

Rugby started confidently enough though, and Saints’s Jason King almost headed a Jamie Towers’ cross past his own keeper Barney McLaughlin early on. McLaughlin’s kicking was somewhat erratic in the opening exchanges, and three times his sliced clearances went unpunished.

However despite the home side’s overall dominance in terms of possession and territory, it was St Ives that carved out the best two chances of the first half – but fortunately Valley keeper Niall Cooper pulled out top drawer saves both times to deny the visitors.

First he kept out Karl Gibbs’s low strike with a strong one-handed stop, and then was equally as well down to Avelino Vieira’s free-kick from the edge of the area – although Tom Meecham should really have done better with the rebound, which he instead helped wide.

Valley’s best chance of the half came from Jared Cunniff, but McLaughlin clumsily pushed his ex-team mate’s volley around target for a corner.

The hosts did create three further opportunities in the run-up to the break, with Justin Marsden, Ellis Myles and Lake-Gaskin all trying their luck from distance.

However Marsden’s strike was headed away from the goal face by Mitch Hancock, McLaughlin was equal to Myles’s rising shot and the Lake-Gaskin effort fizzed just wide of the post.

The second half was generally an uninspiring spectacle, with the game’s deciding moment coming ten minutes into it when Cunniff’s run into the box was adjudged to have been halted illegally by Jordan Lambert – providing Lake-Gaskin with the chance to drill a spot-kick past McLaughlin.

Rugby failed to push on from this point though, and with tactical substitutions that saw both David Kolodynski and Lake-Gaskin withdrawn for the final twenty minutes, they did not really threaten again – apart from a twenty-yard strike by Richard Blythe, which saw McLaughlin make a neat save.

Valley Line-up: Cooper; Myles, Fox, Haines, Gudger; Marsden, Towers, Blythe, Cunniff (Wesley); Kolodynski (King), Lake-Gaskin (Bottomer). Subs not used: Palmer, Pritchard. Booked: None.

St Ives line-up: McLaughlin, Gibbs, Hancock, Newman, Lambert, Dean, King, Banister, Vieira, Meechan, Roberts. Subs: Eyre, Merry, Bennion, Everdell, Horne.